Spring Rolls

Spring roll fixings, this was my first time ever making them so I left the meat out this time around, just in case they were gross or something like that, next time there will be seafood or chicken in my spring rolls!

Me rolling the spring rolls, they are relatively easy to make,

Here I'm finishing wrapping a spring roll.  I made raw veggie spring rolls, spring rolls that are deep fried use the wanton wrappers.

And dinner is served.  In case you're wondering if we are going on a raw diet?  Ummmm no, we had Italian beef sammies for both breakfast and lunch with no veggies so tonight it was a raw veggie dinner!

And this was tonight's treat.  Strawberries with Angel Food Cake!

Braised Brussel Sprouts

1 lb brussel sprouts cut in half (trim the icky stuff off)

1/4 c dried cranberries/craisins

1 medium onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

salt

pepper

red pepper flake (1/16th tsp or less just a sprinkle)

2T Olive Oil

Put all of the above into a cast iron skillet and cook up for about five minutes and then add:

1T Butter

Tamari Soy Sauce

Rice Wine Vinegar or Juice of one small Orange

Cover with a lid and let cook for five minutes.  Remove lid and cook and additional three to five minutes until you have some good coloring (carmelized). You can substitute out cauliflowerettes.

Harvey

I bought a Venus Flytrap a week or so ago, he's eaten quite a few flies in the time he's been with us.  Here he is getting ready to enjoy breakfast.

Happy Summer Solstice

Our cherry tree is loaded with cherries this year!  The picking will commence later this afternoon, now that we've been about ten hours without rain.

Oliver's pool, in his run, that he has yet to use due to all of the rain, but it's looking like this week may be a good week for him and his pool.

Pepper enjoying the cool breeze coming in through the front screened door.

Pepper Keeping me Company

Tonight's studio help is brought to you by Pepper!

There's some artwork in the basket under him so I placed a piece of synthetic velvet (which he loves) atop the stack so it wouldn't become fuzzy.

Oliver

He sat still long enough for me to snap his photo.

I've Consolidated!

I've consolidated!  I have moved most of the posts from this blog, and the other blogs I was trying to keep up with to one blog only!!!  You can now keep up with me at my main blog, and the only blog I will be posting at over here! 

Angel

She's not doing so well now that she's pushing 15 years or so (she was a rescue we're not really sure how old she is other than 14+ years), she's gone from looking at the bridge to now running towards it, I figure we have a few more days left with her tops.  I made her some food from scratch tonight and she gobbled that right up, so at least she has a full tummy.

Pepper Files: Hiding from the Dog

Pepper blending in with my natural dyed fabrics in a basket in my studio, hoping Oliver won't notice him.

Crushed Egg Shells for Compost

Crushed eggshells, approximately one a half gallons worth, I dare say my compost pile is going to be so happy!

Oliver Files: After the Storm

Oliver and his ball.  We experienced a large amount of hail today, golf ball sized hail and discovered Oliver is scared of hail!

Excuse the mess this is the "nest" he made today between the dining and family rooms, he's a very busy dog that loves to build nests and each nest requires shredded paper.  Yes he has a crate and a blanket for his crate but nothing rocks his world more than a fresh nest!

The hail was about the size of grapes when it first started falling.

Salsbury Steak

Home made Salsbury Steak with Mashed Potatoes!

Garden Plot for 2014

Half scale of what the actual garden will look like, we are moving our raised beds to the back garden this year and the space is 16x29 feet.  If I planned everything correctly I will have enough room for six raised beds and four trellis panels with enough room for a minimum of 16 tomato plants.

The green panel to the left represents the asparagus patch, at the top and the rhubarb bed to the south, yes my rhubarb bed really is that big!  The wedge on the lower right represents lawn, I have to account for the garden shed door so I can get stuff out of the garden shed.

And as I look at this sketch those two herb beds could be one large herb bed instead, lol. I'll probably rework the sketch several times as we start to move the three raised beds we already have, and then start building the other two raised beds.

I'm guessing this was a good  year for us to decide to start over from scratch with our gardening efforts.  Only one of the five blueberry bushes survived the brutal winter, haven't seen any leaf buds on the current bushes yet, and none of the strawberry plants survived.  Yep, a great year to start over!

Oliver Files ~ Sick Puppy

He's been one sick puppy today, am not sure what he got into yesterday or last night, whatever it was it seems to be slowly working it's way out of his system.

Mean while... back at the studio... I cleaned an area in my studio so I can pack up my artwork for a solo show I'm hanging this weekend.  You can learn more about this upcoming show at my studio blog.

Mom for Throw Back Thursday

TBT ~ Mom for Throw Back Thursday, taken sometime around 1976-78.

Snow!

It wasn't supposed to stick to the ground, they said... yeah right!

Oliver Files New Squeek Toy

A VERY blurry photo of a very happy Oliver with a brand new squeek toy that won't get lost under the china cupboard or the sofa!  All is well it's soft enough for him to squeek to his hearts delight!

Horsemint aka Bergamont

Bergamont aka horsemint.

Oliver Files: The Chair

If you ask Oliver the chair belongs to him, not me, he's not spoiled one bit, no he's not!!!

Spring has Sprung!

Angel and Oliver hanging out in the outdoor dog run last summer.

Remember all of the hard work John did last Spring to build up my raised gardens in the front yard, here is a photo from last year?  Well we are going to move them to the north garden because mostly we get more sunlight in the back yard than we do in the front yard.  

Soooooo, today began the long process of clearing out the north garden, John removed the fence posts, and the chicken wire fencing while I cleaned up all of the trash that blew into our yard over this past winter.  I also organized all of the fence posts, etc., and otherwise acted as his runner for tools and such, while Angel and Oliver hung out in the outdoor kennel.  

Hopefully next weekend I'll have new photos to share as we embark on this new journey, but we are both in agreement that we love the raised beds and this is the direction we want to go, that and a quarter or half CSA share which we need to make a decision on in the next week or so.  I will say that I was excited to see that my raised beds are completely thawed out, a minor miracle considering this years winter and the fact that we still have ice in the back yard!